*sets up platter and wok, fills bottom of wok with water, turns heat on lowish*

*pulls out a tower of bamboo steamer baskets*

*unwraps a foil package and places Chinese BBQ pork ribs on platter*

*sets up small flat dishes with black vinegar and ginger shreds,, and more dishes with hot mustard*

*pulls out a supply of Chinese soup spoons and chopsticks*

The steamer baskets hold Shanghai soup dumplings -- broth and pork meatballs inside a dumpling wrapper. To eat, maneuver one out of the steamer basket that's sitting next to the wok on a plate (or grab another steamer basket if that one's empty) into a spoon, drizzle with some of the vinegar, and, once it's cooled enough to eat, pop it in your mouth and enjoy.

I'll stop by to check the water level from time to time, although I'd certainly appreciate it if anyone who stops for a bite checks and keeps it from running dry. If anyone with Water Powers can set up an auto-feed process, that would be really cool.

*picks out a green and a yellow touch figure, cuts out and puts yellow across the upper chest and bottom of torso, and writes "xe/xyr/yrs/xyrself" on it before putting it on*

*grabs enough pillows for a nest, hauls it off to a well-lighted corner and plunks down*

Ohhhh. Dumplings! And you brought beni shouga! Well then, I know what my contribution has to be.

*lays out a selection of baskets, a cutting board, and a heavy knife, and begins filling up bowls with vegetables ready for steaming*

Off the top of my head, there's peas and pea shoots, big spicy radishes and little sweet radishes, eggplant split and ready, and at least three kinds of mushrooms (my favorite maitake, the big tasty brown ones, and the little ones with a gazillion stems), young pak choi, larger cabbage, and carrots.

*puts a pan stuffed with small foil-wrapped packages in the oven*

Those are soy-sauce chicken: marinated in garlic and ginger, then foil-wrapped and baked hot and fast. They end up fall-apart tender and delicious. The ones with a red strip wrapped around have chili in the marinade.

I'm going to be a while at this, but sometimes, cooking for a big group is its own form of comfortable. I'll help keep an eye on the wok, too.

The bear shambles in with two medium-largish pots, one of chunky matzoh ball soup and one of mild but very savoury vegan mushroom chili (hopefully everybody can do one or the other? I'll take requests for next time). A little carrier contains a bottle of Tobasco chipotle sauce, and a can of Mexican hot chocolate mix (it's got cinnamon in and is LOVELY warming without bringing Teh Heats) and shelf-stable cartons of milk, one of rice and one of cow's.

Setting his burdens in appropriate places on the table, he acquires stickers "he/him" and "CUDDLE ME" and flumps down to await the usual suspects and, if he's lucky, a few other favourites.

J comes in with a bag of knitting, peanut butter brownies, walnut brownies and plain brownies amd her stuffed red panda. She is wearing her fuzzy red robe and purple unicorn tights. She sets her goodies down before collecting some of all the delicious food to try and flopping down next to the Bear. "Cuddle me?"

What's in your knitting bag this time? Mine's got a sample piece of dimensional tuck knitting for my next project, a couple of lengths of knitting that will get armholes for one class, and the start of a double-knit rectangle where I'm going to learn how to do double-knit lace in another class this weekend. That's what I'm working on now.

A medium sized house cat shaped critter sniffs and bats at the bag of knitting. She has short chocolate brown and magpie iridescent blue fur and is wearing a lilac vest with patches that say "Error: out of spoons", "she/they" and "pet me please"

Each bundle consists of pieces of red-painted bamboo that assemble with pegs into legs several feet long supporting a set of crossbars. Strings wrapping hundreds of small cylindrical objects, also red, dangle from the crossbars almost to the ground, with an additional few feet of string past the last object.

*leaves a box of matches and a set of tongs behind*

*goes back inside*

If this isn't a good place or time to set this up, please let me know, and I'll gladly move it or pack it back up.

*gets into hot tub, wearing a blue swimming skirt and the short sleeve sunblock shirt* I've been shoveling our driveway. It's snowing AGAIN and my husband got his big toe bashed by a customer last night.